After Delta screwed up (downgraded us) our return flight seats on our big retirement trip, AND broke 5 of HRH’s golf clubs (they accept no responsibility), I’m in the market for a new carrier. As teachers, we never flew really that often so I don’t currently have status, just about 140k SkyPesos.
Since our place in Florida is 60 miles from MIA, American seems logical.
Since we are retired, we are usually available for a last minute deal (we met a guy last year who does all those American Airlines Vacations last minute packages–he loves them).
We also have a handful of JetBlue poinnts, and the corresponding credit card.
Thoughts?
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Honestly, it makes most sense these days to be airline-agnostic.
Unless you’re flying weekly or long-haul trips often status is pretty meaningless these days.
I just fly the big carriers and look for the flights that make the most sense for me. I do carry some airline credit cards on the low annual fee level to get checked bags for free on the airlines that fly on routes that I fly at least once/year, so I come out ahead.
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Kevin is right. There really is no reason to be loyal to any airline any longer. I’ve been telling people for the past 5-7 years if you want a seat up front buy it. Do not expect to be upgraded. Ever. Everything else such as free bags and club access can typically be accessed via credit cards these days.
Having said that I fly AA almost exclusively for one reason and one reason only: convenience. Since DFW is my hub I can almost always fly non stop anywhere in the world I typically fly. VERY important to me. The most I have stop is 1-stop and that’s rare. Almost always non stop.
btw the loyalty points are almost useless unless you can luck out using them a year in advance and have online ninja skills like the Frequent Flyer Forum boys do. My AA account does nothing but grows since I can never seem to cash them out without basically just giving them away back to AA in desparation.
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I was also a Delta frequent flyer when we lived up north, but American Airlines is our best choice flying from Wilmington NC (almost everything goes through Charlotte). Did the same thing, got the AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard for the baggage benefits and access to the Admirals Club. Added a card for my wife and she gets access too.
We’ve had better luck using the frequent flyer miles - credit card upgrade bonus allowed us to get first class RT tickets to Costa Rica last year, and now waiting on mileage upgrades to Business Class to Europe in November (got it for the return, waiting on the outbound part of the trip).
Experiences with AA have largely been positive, and I do like the Admirals Club. But Delta has a nice product.
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Agree with much of what is said here. Prior UL Global Services and ExPlat. Now I only fly when I want to and it’s less and less since Covid.
We tried DL when we left Dallas for SC and ended up driving to SC more times than not from Atlanta due to DL’s issues. Now I usually stick to UL (and buy the upgrade) or AA, but whatever schedule is best.
BTW, I used to swear by AA before the USelessAir merger. But now I prefer UL.
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Free agent is the way.
A cobranded credit card helps, but choose based on price and convenience.
I have lifetime platinum status with AA so don’t need their credit card. However, out of Miami, AA has the best schedule.
Use up the sky pesos sooner rather than later.
Also lifetime platinum on AA, but frankly, even when I was still traveling a decent amount on business, it rarely got me upgraded. I didn’t fly enough to be exec plat, and there were always a dozen or more of those ahead of me. Having status is nice for checking in and boarding, but little more these days, unless you are traveling every week and building up a lot more miles than a retired casual traveler can do.
I agree. I’m at almost 6 million lifetime AA miles and avoid AA post-merger because it sucks. But prefer DL out of LAX. DL and its partners provide us with our best options.
If/when Amex PLT will allow only limited lounge entries, we will cancel/downgrade our cards and buy Skyclub memberships instead.
I’d advise anyone considering jumping from DL to AA to sleep on that decision. For a very long time.
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For whatever its worth. The airlines are struggling big time due to lack of staff. I am a 360 on delta and have flown over 75 flights so far this year and the last two to three months have been the worst I ever experienced. Major issues with about 80% of my flights. Delta is by far the best of the airlines…admittedly a low bar.
I’d echo the sentiment of not being particularly loyal to any single airline. We fly United primarily since we are SF-based and SFO is a hub. I’ve also had generally positive experiences with United (they got some bad press for a while, but I always thought it was largely unfounded), certainly better than my limited sample of AA flights. I don’t care all that much about achieving status though. As others said, you can’t count on upgrades particularly when you live near a hub, unless of course you are Global Services (or the equivalent).
Amex plat delta lounge restrictions announced eff 2/1/25- 6 per card member year.
Our of LAX, AA is strong LAX-jfk, lax-Bos and most of the time LAX -MIA (when they run wide bodies with lie flat),
On other routes, I’ll take delta over AA on a nonstop (given comparable prices) but would never choose a connection on Delta over a nonstop on AA (assuming comparable planes).
Flagship lounge>>Skyclub>>Admirals Club.
Scott,
Congratulations on retiring. Now you have time to come to DC and we can do a Burgundy Thursday and play golf at my club.
Go Southwest. More flexible than anyone else and can check in two items (suitcase and golf bag) without paying anything.
Get a stiff arm for your golf bag - Bag Boy Backbone Travel Cover Support System | PGA TOUR Superstore [not the brand we have but this is the idea.]
Try to identify the Bag Boy Backbone Travel Cover Support Sustem in this photo.
We’re looking at American since Miami is a hub.
btw the pic does not include her 56 degree wedge, which we noticed later.
Snapped at the top of the grip.
For you Delta fans, they have offered NOTHING.
And their response to our downgrade was simply to deposit the SkyPesos difference in fare back into my account–nada for pain and suffering.
Agree. I’m United 1K and have been forever. I fly all the time (including this morning, tomorrow, Sunday, next Wednesday …). I feel like 99% of my worst flight experiences have been in the past 6 months. Just a total minefield of operational and customer service snafus.
I will say that I’m interested to see what happens next year. It seems like there are a ton of 1Ks (and whatever is similar on other airlines) due to Covid causing airlines to make status more lenient. It seems like a ton of higher-status folks are going to drop off before next year. I almost never get upgrades now, at least not unless I’m flying somewhere kind of random. I’d like to see that change.
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I spent a whole lifetime before wine on airplanes flying internationally for my cinematography career. Agreed, learned a long time ago to chose the right airline for each trip and stay completely agnostic. I also learned never to connect inbound from abroad within the US, as that makes you have to re-check your luggage.
To me Delta was somewhat always the least bad of a really bad bunch of US airlines. UA and AA have always been terrible for me (but they’re all terrible compared to most international airlines). When Virgin America was still going, that would be my choice to NYC, but not sure how Alaska is doing with that now. My travels have severely diminished since covid so I’m a little out of the loop.
Air New Zeeland was always my choice for going to London from LA, but that direct line is now shut down. For South America, LAN Chile was always the best for me (but, if you were paying yourself, Copa’s business class going through Panama was always a good option).
But it’s not just the US. Most of the European airlines are also phoning it in these days, living on past highs. I can’t think of a single Euro airline I’d rate on the level as most of the Asian or Middle Eastern airlines.
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Hard to fathom that they offered nothing. I wrote a quick email to Delta about gettin splashed unapologetically by a stew on a flight home from London recently and they gave me 15,000 miles.
And they gave you nothing? Wow.
I’m in with the agnostic crew. If things are pretty equal I will fly Delta or United, but any significant difference, I will go with whomever. Very low loyalty. Which pretty much matches how they treat ya.
as others said, if you aren’t stuck in a hub and/or dont fly almost weekly, toss loyalty out the window. Get 2 AMEX or 2 Chase cards, earn flexible reward currency and either pay cash for your ticket or use points. I do carry a United card because I am close to EWR and I’ll use a lounge 2x a year because I’ll fly United at least 1-2, and I get a free checked bag and Zone 2 boarding (though with all the elites in NJ + Zone 1, Zone 2 boarding isnt that early in the process!) but I am not loyal to United one bit.
I wish I was stuck in a hub.
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eh I’d hate being in a hub. One of the few reasons I still like the Tri State area is easy access to JFK, EWR, LGA and if needed, HPN or SWF. 1-2x for really complex award flights I’ve considered Philly (about a 2 hour drive) but never pulled the trigger as I always found something out of EWR or JFK eventually.
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Palm Beach is my closest airport–Breeze flies direct to Charleston in case we don’t want the slog up I-95.
JetBlue flies Charleston direct to Lauderdale, and has the benefits of lots of JetBlue Vacations departing from FLL.
The American hub in Miami is intriguing; MIA direct to CDG would be cool.
Even if Delta had not screwed us, I’m not crazy about always having to go through Atlanta (from Chas or Palm Bch).
For now I will keep my Delta Plat AMEX, but I’m not using it much. I will use the JetBlue card a bit, but mostly use Sapphire Reserve.
I’m not going to worry about status. Even in retirement, I doubt we will fly very often.